The present invention refers to an ink-jet printer for printing on cards.
In particular, the invention can be used for printing on cards comprising a plastic material such as, for example, credit cards, smart cards, magnetic cards, etc.
As known, these cards usually bear signs, images, trademarks, that help the users to identify the purpose of the card and to distinguish each card from the others.
In order to print on such cards, the Applicant has found that particular inks can be employed, that comprise: a medium consisting of a low-boiling organic solvent, an auxiliary solvent consisting of a high-boiling organic solvent, and a colouring component soluble in said medium.
These kind of inks evaporate extremely quickly. Therefore, after a very short time after an ink ejection, portions of dried ink can be detected on the nozzle plate, and in particular in the nozzles.
The ink droplets subsequently ejected by the same nozzles hit these portions of dried ink and change their direction accordingly. This causes problems in term of printing quality, since the ink droplets do not land on the expected spot of the card to be printed, and the results of the printing operation is consequently different from the desired one.